Raitajärvi

The Raitajärvi coarse flake graphite project is advantageously located 2km from the sealed Överkalix-Övertorneå Highway, 25km by road to the nearest railhead and 130km by road to the Port of Luleå. It comprises two exploration permits covering 17km2. Raitajärvi has been declared an area of national interest by the Swedish Geological Survey ("SGU"), providing protection against competing land uses.

Exploration History

Graphite was initially identified at Raitajärvi in the late 1800s. The Swedish Geological Survey undertook ground based geophysics in 1974 and 1978, defining three parallel stratigraphic conductors within a 6km x 1.5km area. Between 1989 and 1992 the SGU completed 20 diamond drill holes for 1242m and 5 trenches for 803m and outlined an initial coarse flake graphite (non-JORC) resource of 0.6Mt @ 8.9% graphite ("Cg").

Metallurgical Test work

Thin section analysis of 87 samples (from both drill core and trenched material) by the SGU identified a high proportion of coarse flake present at Raitajärvi, with 87% of graphite flakes greater than 100 microns (µm), and 49% greater than 200 µm.

Raitajärvi Graphite Flake Size (historic drill sample microscopy, n=87)Historical metallurgical test work produced excellent results, with graphite concentrates grading 90-94% C from simple (unoptimised) flotation and 99% C in a basic enrichment test. It was also noted the overall characteristics were similar to that of the Kringel graphite deposit, currently undergoing refurbishment to production at the Woxna mine in southern Sweden.

Talga Upgrade of Raitajärvi Resource

During March-April 2013 Talga undertook a diamond drilling program at Raitajärvi, drilling 28 holes for 3,666m. This led to the calculation of a new JORC compliant resource of 4.3Mt @ 7.1% Cg, with 3.4Mt @ 7.3% Cg classified Indicated.